Readers will find that most of the time I quote from the New King James Version of the Bible, although I sometimes quote from other versions too. I also refer to the original Hebrew or Greek words used when it is expedient to get a clearer or deeper meaning of the text, so that our understanding of the Word of God may be enhanced.
I have endeavoured to write with the average Christian layperson (if such an individual exists!) in mind. Hence I have tried to keep the science content both minimal and as simple as possible. This, however, has been very difficult to do at times because of the very topics that are being discussed. I trust that the reader will bear with me on these occasions and will try to follow the arguments that I use.
I know that the first edition of this book was a great help and blessing to many people. I have been amazed at the number of people who have written to me or come up to me and told me how, as a result of reading What About Origins?, they became Christians or started to take the early chapters of the Bible literally. More recently, people have asked me to rewrite What About Origins?, bringing the science up to date and adding new material that I have come across over the years. This second edition is the result of such requests. My prayer is that this edition will be used by the Lord to bring even more people to a saving knowledge of him.
Finally, I trust that, while reading this book, the reader will be constantly reminded of the words of the apostle Paul:
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base [or ‘insignificant’ or ‘lowly’] things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
(1 Cor. 1:27–29)
Dr A. J. Monty White
2010
Chapter 1
The Creator and his ways
There is no Introduction, Preface or Foreword to the Genesis account of the creation. Without hesitation or apology, Genesis 1 records that God is the Creator of everything and that he created everything in six days. That this is so is also stated clearly in the middle of the fourth commandment: ‘For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day’ (Exod. 20:11).
Some people argue that the days in Genesis 1 are not literal days. However, the Hebrew word that is translated ‘day’ in that chapter is yom. In the context in which it is used throughout the chapter, this word yom means—and can only mean—a literal day. This can be shown by studying the use and meaning of the word yom elsewhere in the Old Testament. Whenever the word yom is found outside of Genesis 1 with a numeral (one, two, three, four and so on)—and this occurs 410 times in the singular and plural—it always means a literal day. Furthermore, whenever the word yom is found outside of Genesis 1 together with the phrase ‘evening and morning’—and this occurs no fewer than thirty-eight times—it always means a literal day. Finally, whenever the word yom is found outside of Genesis 1 with either the word ‘evening’ or the word ‘morning’—and this occurs twenty-three times with each one—it always means a literal day. From these textual considerations it can be seen that the days in Genesis 1 can only be literal days.
Genesis 1 also provokes the question: Who made God? Again, we have to turn to the Bible to find the answer to this question, for it is in this book, and in this book alone, that we learn about God. The Bible is the Word of God rather than the thoughts and ideas of any human being, and it is the only book that tells us about God—the one true God, the Creator of everything. When we search the Scriptures we learn that God did not have a beginning—he has always existed—and it follows that he did not have a creator—no one made him! To ask the question ‘Who made God?’ is to ask nonsense along the lines of ‘What does the colour red smell like?’ The colour red does not have a smell. God did not have a beginning; God did not have a creator—he has always been and always will be. There never was a time when God was not. This may be hard for us to understand fully, but it is a fundamental truth taught by Scripture.
In the Genesis account of the creation, we are confronted, not with man, but with God. Here at the very beginning we meet God; here from the very beginning we are introduced to the Bible’s approach to all things: everything is seen, not only from God’s point of view, but also with God as pre-eminent. Here, I believe, is a lesson for us all: many of our problems and difficulties stem from the tendency to look at things from our point of view—we look at ourselves with our changeableness and weaknesses instead of looking at God’s unchanging sovereignty and glorious power.
This is one of the failings of the Christian church today—she has lost her vision of the true nature of God and has become too man-centred. Hence theology, which simply means ‘the truth about God’, is seen to be academic, dull, boring and irrelevant, whereas it is really the only possible foundation of a Christian life. By losing their vision of the mighty power of God, many Christians have rejected God as the Creator of all things. Instead of looking to God and his infallible Word, the Bible, they have instead looked to fallible man (to scientists, in particular) to furnish the answers to the questions about origins. To such Christians I would plead that they turn their eyes back to God and to his infallible Word rather than look to scientists and their ever-changing ideas, discoveries and textbooks.
Scriptural references to the creation
Scriptural references to the doctrine of creation by Almighty God are not confined to the first chapter of the book of Genesis, but are found throughout the whole of the Bible. It will be profitable for us to look at some of the passages of Scripture that refer to creation in order to comprehend the great extent to which this doctrine permeates the pages of the Word of God and is relevant to Christians living in the twenty-first century. It should be remembered that the following references are by no means exhaustive.
HISTORICAL BOOKS
Part of the prayer of the Levites:
You alone are the LORD;
You have made heaven,
The heaven of heavens, with all their host,
The earth and everything on it,
The seas and all that is in them,
And You preserve them all.
The host of heaven worships You.
(Neh. 9:6)
THE LAW
The fourth commandment:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
(Exod. 20:8–11)
Moses speaking to the Israelites:
For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
(Deut. 4:32–33)
THE BOOKS OF WISDOM
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
‘Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
/> When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Or who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
When I made the clouds its garment,
And thick darkness its swaddling band;
When I fixed My limit for it,
And set bars and doors;
When I said,
“This far you may come, but no farther,
And here your proud waves must stop!”’
(Job 38:1–11)
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.
(Ps. 33:6–7; see also 102:25; 121:2; 124:8; 136:5–9; 146:5–6; 148:1–5)
The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
The LORD has made them both.
(Prov. 20:12)
THE PROPHETS
For thus says the LORD
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:
‘I am the LORD, and there is no other.’
(Isa. 45:18)
He has made the earth by His power,
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.
(Jer. 10:12; see also Isa. 37:16; 40:12, 21–22, 26; 44:24; 48:13; 51:13, 16; Jer. 51:15)
THE GOSPELS
Jesus speaking to his disciples:
For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be.
(Mark 13:19; see also Matt. 19:3–6; Mark 10:2–9; John 1:3, 10)
THE EPISTLES
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come …)
(Rom. 5:12–14)
For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.
(1 Cor. 11:8–9)
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
(1 Cor. 15:22)
To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ …
(Eph. 3:8–9)
For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
(1 Tim. 2:13)
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.
(Heb. 1:1–2)
THE BOOK OF REVELATION
The twenty-four elders around the throne of God:
You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.
(Rev. 4:11)
A flying angel:
Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.
(Rev. 14:7)
Faith and creation
It is plain from the above Scriptures that creation by Almighty God is an indisputable teaching of the Word of God. Ultimately, however, biblical truth, including the doctrine of creation, can only be understood by faith. Now this is not that faith described by Mark Twain when he said that ‘Faith is believing what you know ain’t so’,1 but it is that true biblical faith defined by the writer of the book of Hebrews as ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’ (Heb. 11:1). True faith is based not on empirical evidence, but on divine assurance.
The essence of the doctrine of creation is also found in the book of Hebrews, for we read in Hebrews 11:3, ‘By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.’ Although in Romans 1:20 the Bible teaches clearly that the invisible nature of the Godhead may be plainly understood by the things which are seen (that is, the visible creation), the Bible also teaches that people’s understanding has been darkened and their eyes blinded by the god of this world (see Eph. 4:18; 2 Cor. 4:4). The truth about creation, therefore, is outside the realm of the understanding of the non-Christian apart from by spiritual revelation: ‘But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Cor. 2:14). Hence only the Christian can really understand and appreciate fully the doctrine of supernatural creation.
One of the problems we have in appreciating creation is that there is no analogy in modern human experience to define and fully comprehend it. The word that is used in Genesis 1 to convey that God created all things is the Hebrew word barah. This word is translated ‘created’, but Dr John Whitcomb gives its fuller meaning as ‘a sudden supernatural bringing into existence of highly complex things by the mere spoken word of an omnipotent God’.2 He goes on to point out that barah never means ‘long-drawn-out, merely providential, trial-and-error processes’ but that it always means ‘supernatural, sudden creation’. This is something that is clearly taught in Scripture.
Christians therefore believe in an ex nihilo (literally, ‘out of nothing’) creation because of their faith. It is not by observation, it is not by experimentation, it is not by scientific method, it is not because of the modern discoveries of science that lend support to the biblical account of the creation and the early history of the earth, but it is by faith. Now this faith is not just a mental assent to, or an acknowledgement of, Christian ‘ideology’, but it is a living, supernatural faith born of revelation; it is an embracing of, and a commitment to, the authority of the Word of the Author of that revelation; it is the acceptance of the authority of the living God; it is to take God at his word. In 1 Corinthians 14:33 we read that God is not the author of confusion; neither is he a confused author! Any confusion arising in people’s minds when they read and study the Bible is often of their own making or due to lack of understanding. The only way to understand the Bible is to take a literal and logical approach to it, while at the same time asking the Holy Spirit for his help to enable us to comprehend it.
Evolutionists likewise believe in evolution because of their faith rather than because of any evidence that they may have to prove it. Again, it is not by observation, experimentation, scientific method, nor because of the modern discoveries of science, but it is by faith—faith in extrapolation, in natural processes operating over vast periods of time, in speculation and in missing links.
Evolutionists’ faith in extrapolation can be demonstrated by considering their belief that ‘the present is the key to the past’. This idea proposes that observed processes (especially geological ones) in the present determine what has happened in the past. This was first suggested by Scottish naturalists (David Hume and James Hutton being the most notable) towards the end of the eighteenth century and, after refinement by John Playfair, it was popularized by Charles Lyell in his magnum opus, Principles of Geology, in 1830. A careful examination of this idea actually illustrates that what evolutionists do is to observe the present and then extrapolate (or guess) what happened in the past. Mark Twain demonstrates the abs
urdities of extrapolation in the following illustration:
In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago … the Lower Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod.3
He then goes on to show the absurdities of extrapolating into the future, continuing, ‘And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen.’ Finally, Mark Twain cynically remarks that ‘There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.’4
The evolutionist’s faith in natural processes to produce not only life but also intelligence and design is demonstrated by Professor Richard Dawkins, who was reported as saying,
I believe that all life, all intelligence, all creativity and all ‘design’ anywhere in the universe is the direct or indirect product of Darwinian natural selection. It follows that design comes late in the universe, after a period of Darwinian evolution. Design cannot precede evolution and therefore cannot underlie the universe.5
What About Origins? (CreationPoints) Page 2
